All sound is noise when it gets in the way of hearing something else, or when it disrupts a prevailing environmental quietude. Most particularly, commercial television and radio programming contain many periods of utter noise. Station breaks and commercials are typical of these kinds of annoying trash sounds. More problematic is the illusion, if not reality, that commercials and similar content interspersed between desirable programming are run at a higher volume level to make them into an even more annoyingly piercing background racket, particularly when the viewer or listener is trying to converse with another person.
Mute Means Complete Silence
Recognizing the raucous nature of commercial broadcasting sound such as frequently encountered on television has led most manufacturers of television sets and similar entertainment equipment to presently include the MUTE function as standard part of their remote controller's user convenience offering. A MUTE command ordinarily completely quiets, or silences the remotely controlled sound source. As a result, the sound is “shut off” and nothing can be heard.
Complete silencing such as delivered by the MUTE function is a long-standing solution to the noise problem. It is however, not necessarily the best. Realize how often viewers opt to “turn-down” a televisor's sound to a very low, nearly whisper-like level instead of using the MUTE function. As a result, the viewer may be able to carry on a conversation with another person, on the telephone or in person, while still following the gist of the television program content.
A lowered sound level leads to an almost subliminal capacity to appreciate the program content flow without interfering with a concurrent conversation, especially if it is accompanied by “closed captioning”. A typical example is to “lower the volume” during a commercial to such an extent that the sound is not annoying in the sense of carrying on a conversation with another person. The lowered sound is sufficient to allow the viewer to “notice” when the sound changes back to the program content, without the necessity for actually watching the television screen to see when the program resumes.
A total muting of sound masks this capability for listening for a change in sound content to flag the return of desirable programming as compared with periods of utter noise such as delivered by station breaks and commercials. Therefore this overkill of total quieting afforded by the MUTE function provided with most remote controller functions is only marginally satisfactory. A semi-MUTE, or HUSH mode of operation is anticipated by this invention to be a far more satisfactory and useful mode.
The HUSH mode serves to partially-MUTE and quiet-down the sound loudness level, but it does not go so far as to absolutely silence the sound. In other words, the sound level is reduced from being absolute bedlam noise such as during a commercial or station break, to being a nearly subliminal sound level which can be preset to be just of sufficiently loudness level to be noticeable but mostly unobjectionable. Prior to this invention, the partial reduction of sound level was attainable only by multiple actuations of the “volume down” keybutton function.
Recognizing the inconvenience and inconsistency of this prior technique for reducing volume, that is by making a series of “volume down” (VOL-DOWN key) keybutton entries led to this invention. Now a single button may reduce the sound level to a preset lower level. The HUSH button may be separately embodied, similar in form to that of the ubiquitous MUTE button, except that it operates to merely lower the sound and not bluntly shut it off.